


Establishing a Connection (Mage!AU)

by Broken_Condom_Style



Series: Haikyuu!! Mage AU! [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:36:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5522270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Condom_Style/pseuds/Broken_Condom_Style
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where magic is real and so are the creatures that harness it, Shōyō and Tobio become apprentices under four skilled mages who will teach them all they know of magic. Along with three other apprentices, their journey will have them encountering hijinks, low-jinks and maybe even some medium-jinks!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Establishing a Connection

With no schools to teach one how to use the magic of the universe, it was up to those with determination to learn how to harness the magic to use it. Shōyō was one who wanted so desperately to learn how to use magic ever since he saw a show broadcasting a mage known as The Little Giant. Despite the boy being young, he was very talented and Shōyō so desperately wished to be that powerful. That cool. He began reading all the works he could on the subject, but it was not enough to quench his thirst for the powers of the hidden realms. He wanted to be able to feel the power in his body and his palms, watching the product of his hard work be exhibited in beautiful swirls of energy which can materialize into anything his little heart desires. That was his goal; not even the popularity or talent that some mages attained, but being able to experience the rush and serge of energy for himself instead of vicariously experiencing it through watching The Little Giant or the other great mages. He was determined to experience this for himself.

Shōyō soon heard that there were some young mages who were willing to take in apprentices. Excitement wracked the short orange-haired boy as he prepared to apply for the apprenticeship. He heard that the quartet were willing to teach only five, so acting quickly was of utmost importance. Shōyō grew anxious but he didn’t let that stop him. He got his mother’s permission to travel over the hill to the large market that the mages were said to be staying while accepting applications. Natsu wished her brother well, giving him a pin she had made for him. Both Natsu and Shōyō exhibited natural magical abilities but they were far from usable, which was why he needed teachers to guide him and then he could teach Natsu who could then teach her children and friends and thinking of such a rippling effect made Shōyō even more excited, yet even more nervous. What if he wasn’t good enough for them? What if he messed up and they hated him or he hurt them or his peers?

Shōyō grew less excited as he neared the bustling country town and the main market where he would find the mages. He pictured old men in large grey cloaks with long beards and angry faces. He thought of treacherous beasts and incantations gone wrong. Of strict elderly teachers and excellent apprentices that blew Shōyō away where he paled in comparison. By the time he reached the shop, he no longer wanted to apply for the apprenticeship. He gripped at his brown cloak, torn and sullied, and he felt nauseous. He wanted to back out, to run away. He so desperately wanted to leave and never return but as he gripped his cloak, he grasped the pin from his sister and he knew that he had to at least try. It didn’t halt his nerves, but it sure helped to get his feet moving into the shop.

A young male shop-keep spoke to four other teens, all smiling and joking. Shōyō looked around and felt confused as he didn’t see the mages. The smell of herbs, flowers, powders and various incenses clouded his nose and his stomach eased slightly as he relaxed and walked to the small circle; the only ones on this floor of the shop.

“Hello! My name is Shōyō Hinata, I am looking to apply for apprenticeship with the mages, where are they?” Shōyō asked as the four taller teens moved to the side to let him step up to the table where the young shop-keep boy stood.

“Right here.” a boy said and Shōyō looked to his left where the four teens stood. He was confused and stared at them in silence for a bit until the grey-haired boy smiled. “Let us introduce ourselves! We’re newly full-fledged mages ourselves and our first task as mages is to teach other mages so we grouped together and are deciding to teach a group!” the boy looked to his friends then back to Shōyō. “It’s less intimidating, don’t you think, Shōyō?”

Shōyō could only nod as he felt his nerves rise again. He stood with four taller mages and one of them being a very pretty girl. One of the guys looked really scary and Shōyō wasn’t sure how scared he had to be of them but all he knew was that a bathroom break would soon be needed.

“My name is Kōshi Sugawara, my specialty is in healing magic.” the grey haired mage smiled. “This is Daichi Sawamura, he specializes in defensive magic like shields and protection spells. Things like that.” Kōshi held his hand to a kind-of scary looking brown haired boy. He seemed nice enough…. “And that large child is Asahi Azumane. Despite his cowardice, he specializes in magic used for offence, are you familiar with that kind?” Kōshi asked as he motioned to the tall scary mage with the long brown hair and stubble. As Shōyō looked at Asahi more, he saw that he too looked ready to vomit.

“Yeah! It’s the kind that goes all *ah!* and *kaPOW!*” Shōyō smiled. That was the kind of magic he wanted to use most of all. The same kind as The Little Giant. The four mages and the shop-keep seemed very confused and Shōyō didn’t even notice as he began to ramble about how much he wanted to be like The Little Giant and how he was so excited to learn how to use magic.

“Shōyō, we should probably start the application process.” Kōshi smiled and Daichi frowned at him, which confused Shōyō. “Let’s head upstairs and you can show us what you’ve got as a mage so far. Thanks again, Chikara for letting us use your shop!” Kōshi smiled to the shop-keep, who nodded in response.

Shōyō felt like vomiting again and silently followed the four teens up the creaky wooden stairs.

“My name is Kiyoko Shimizu. I work more arcane magic and some necromancy.” the beautiful mage told Shōyō as they made their way up to the upper floor. “Do your best, Shōyō.” she put her hand gently on his shoulder to express her support for him, but Shōyō’s face burned a bright crimson as he began to shake and stood still on the steps.

“You broke him!” Daichi cried out when he looked back when Shōyō let out a small whine.

A small panic ensued before Kōshi got Daichi to carry Shōyō upstairs. He commented on the pin Shōyō wore, which reminded the younger boy that he had to do this for Natsu! He had promised her, so he couldn’t walk away saying he hadn’t even tried. He already made it so far.

“Okay, show us the best you can manage. Just so we know where you are in your abilities.” Kōshi instructed Shōyō as the younger stood in the center of the room while the four mages sat around the edge of the room, preparing to watch him.

Shōyō relaxed and held up his hands, palms up, in front of himself. He knew a total of two spells, one of which was very lame. The second he learned solely to show the mages; a spell which would use all the concentration and energy from his inner well. He took a deep breath and kept his eyes shut as he pulled up his energy, which he found to much more abundant than usual. He opened his eyes and the sight he beheld in front of himself was one which he had waited for his whole mage-obsessed life. Swirls of orange, red and some blue twisted around him in a flare of flames which eventually manifested into a flame-bladed sword. It was a very basic spell, but for a complete beginner, he was astonished at his own power. Usually the blade was smaller and there was no blue in it, but he brushed that oddity aside and relished in his own awesomeness.

Meanwhile, the mages were stunned into complete silence. They had only witnessed a well-partnership but a couple times and it was always done by a seasoned mage. The capacity to share wells of power had to be between two very powerful mages, but it was evident that Shōyō was not a powerful mage. Yes he had potential, an abundant amount, but the true amazement came from the one who staggered into the doorway, now glaring at the shorter orange-haired boy. The boy whose well had been opened to Shōyō and unknowingly established the connection between the two wells. It was evident this new arrival was exceedingly talented and had enough power in his well to share between himself and Shōyō and not faint from the strain put on his corporeal body.

“Dumbass!” the boy threw a ball of static energy at Shōyō, the shock making him fall and his sword dissipated. The taller boy stood above Shōyō and the four mages couldn’t help but just stare in disbelief. “Don’t just incant a spell like that without making sure that your well is secure!”

“You messed it up! My spell was perfect!” Shōyō sprung to his feet and stared at his hands with amazement and pride. “I did it! I really incanted and it did what I wanted it to!” he beamed at the four mages.

“You drew from my well and now I have to wait to do a proper incantation!” the new boy yelled at Shōyō.

“We have to teach these two.” Daichi whispered to Kōshi as they watched the two boys yell at each other and run around the room.

“Definitely.” Kōshi nodded, smiling. The two full-mages exchanged an excited, knowing glance which communicated all their sentiments without using words. The two young apprentices would revitalize the potential to be known as a strong town once again.


	2. Meet and Greet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is a chapter two and next chapter will be mostly exposition explaining more about magic and how it's used so enjoy this chapter!

His name was Tobio Kageyama, a young mage apprentice from a small valley village. Tobio, from a young age, knew he was going to be a mage. He was both fascinated and therefore infatuated by the idea that he may be able to control the energy of himself and the universe to manifest various entities or elements. Tobio began to study and he was seen as a prodigy – a genius – by anyone who witnessed his talents.

Tobio’s favourite kind of magic to perform steadily became healing. It took a well-rounded mage because the main aspects to a healing mage was to 1) support the fellow party members, and 2) guard oneself against any attacks while on course. Although this was mainly the job of other party members, once most of the party was injured or the best in the party were injured, defense was heavily important. Tobio aimed to be the best he could at healing and supportive magic. He wanted to support and aid his village to become great and therefore be protected against the domineering country, Oykotnihata.

As countries often did, it was steadily expanding its borders to encompass more terrain. Tobio wanted to create a force to combat that and since many young boys in his village trained to be guards or soldiers, he realised the need for healing mages at an early age. Tobio gave his righteous reasoning a purpose but as he trained, he burnt many bridges, the stress becoming too great as the partners and parties he trained with could not control the power he bestowed upon them. Tobio’s efforts to become stronger were not easily matched to the skills of his peers in his small village, and this pushed him to try harder. To become stronger. Alas, he snapped and the efforts of his training wasted away when entering a battle, his partners died. It was out of his control, but of course he blamed himself for not being able to recognize the levels of power their bodies could contain which was why he left to train under masters.

He heard of some mages coming to town and he knew that it was common practice for new full-mages to train apprentices since it was good practice for them and it made a new generation of full-mages. What Tobio was unprepared for was the matching of his energy well to another’s, especially unbeknownst to either of them. Tobio was amazed, but more so enraged by the childish mistake and lack of restraint the other mage had. Obviously an offensive mage, the orange-headed boy brandished a sword which contained mostly orange flames, but of course some blue magic he clearly recognized as belonging to himself since it was preposterous that a child so young could create a sword of such grandeur with such intense blue flames on his own; besides Tobio had created some blue flames of his own when he first started, too.

So in true Tobio fashion, he threw a not-so-intense ball of energy at the child and blatantly pointed out the child’s foolishness. Once the scene calmed a tad and both boys had been silenced by the terrifying full mage with short brown hair, Tobio was introduced to the others. His introduction was short but informative, as he liked to keep things. He didn’t really want to make friends, he just wanted to learn and protect his village.

“So, c-can I be your apprentice, or….?” the young boy, Shōyō as he introduced himself to be, asked nervously. Tobio became heavily confused and therefore voiced his confusion to enlighten the child.

“They’re taking whoever comes first, so of course you’re going to be their apprentice. Why wouldn’t you be?” Tobio said a little more harshly than he meant to, but he wanted to have his question answered.

“W-what!?” Shōyō gasped in surprise and embarrassment. “B-but Kōshi told me that I had to try out to be an apprentice!”

“Did you not read any of the fliers around town?” Tobio frowned in further confusion. This kid was really dumb, huh? “You dumbass child.”

“Excuse you! I’m no child, I’m 16!” Shōyō snapped which surprised Tobio. They were the same age?

“That doesn’t matter, what matters is that you both are going to be apprentices!” Kōshi tried to defuse the situation.

“Hello….?” a very tired, almost bored voice said before a light knock sounded behind Tobio. He turned with everyone else in the room and saw a shorter, blonde female who looked already very nervous with two taller boys behind her. One with blond hair and glasses and another with freckles and brown hair. Tobio already felt perturbed by the tall blond, but he found the other two fairly tolerable. Of course, he thought so briefly but he ultimately didn’t care to focus much on any feelings because he had a village to protect.

“Hello.” the tall brunet boy smiled and waved. “Chikara downstairs told us that we could apply for apprenticeship up here.”

“Three more apprentices already? Well aren’t we popular!” Daichi laughed and looked to his three other mages. “I guess we can move to our secret lair now.”

“Right!” Kōshi smiled and gave a thumbs-up to his friend. “Let’s get the final introductions in first, though.”

The three newcomers introduced themselves to be Hitoka (the girl), Tadashi (the freckled boy) and Kei (the tall asshole) all from nearby villages, both Tadashi and Kei being from the same one. None of them really knew which kind of magic they wanted to specialize in, but Tobio didn’t very much care about that. He wanted to learn as much as he could. All that he could. He couldn’t be distracted by things that didn’t ultimately matter; things that one under normal circumstances might long for – like romantic relations, friendship relations and amusement, for instance – but he couldn’t be bothered with on his path to protecting his own village.

The group set out to a nearby house which was fairly small but cozy. Tobio noted it smelled like some kind of meat and he felt his stomach rumble. He wondered when the last time he ate was, but he couldn’t recall. He was able to pick up the annoying blabbering that came from the smaller boy to his right who kept asking him stupid questions he couldn’t answer fast enough, even if he wanted to. This child probably enjoyed the sound of his own voice and nothing else. It was quite tiresome but better than the sneering and snickering coming from the tall blonde and his shorter brunet companion. Hitoka looked terrified, even when Kiyoko started talking with her. It reminded Tobio of some of the children in his village; scared and easily startled. Unfortunate such weak souls had to be born into such hard times but Tobio knew, above anyone else, that weakness would weed itself out when trying times began.

“Welcome to our not-so-secret hideout! This is Ryūnosuke Tanaka and Yū Nishinoya, our childhood friends. This is actually Ryūnosuke’s place, so make sure to not destroy too much.” Kōshi motioned to two boys who were trying desperately to talk to Kiyoko, who ignored them and kept talking to a severely frazzled Hitoka. Yū was a short boy with blond dyed into his spiked hair and Ryūnosuke was taller with a shaved head and apparently an affinity to ripping his shirt off as Kōshi and Daichi joked with him about. The two were guards for the village, so they couldn’t do any kind of magic. This always confused Tobio; how could people not know how to use magic? Were their inner wells dried up? Whatever the cause, Tobio didn’t see very much importance in really looking into it seeing as he, as always, had other things to worry over.

“So will you guys be doing any magic or just the boring book stuff?” Ryūnosuke asked, standing by the doorway with Yū, keeping out of the way.

“Boring book stuff.” Kōshi smiled and both the guards looked disgusted and bored before they ran off to do who knows what. Not reading, that was for certain.

“What will we be reading!?” Shōyō asked excitedly, shaking and nearly jumping in twitchy joy. He was like some small dog that couldn’t contain itself from running around and yapping all the time. How annoying.

“Today we start easy, we’ll be looking at the various types of magic and magic casters, then tomorrow we will head a little deeper and the next day we’ll expand more until we can start to put into practice what we’ll read about.” Daichi explained, the other full mages nodding with him.

“We want you all on the same level before we start asking you all to conjure things and harness things. It’s a process.” Asahi added, his voice kind of startling all the apprentices since they hadn’t heard him speak much more than his name. He seemed startled when they became startled and he apologized profusely until Tobio’s stomach gave a huge growl that alerted everyone to how hungry he was. He cursed his stomach but when Kōshi laughed and suggested they all get some food, he felt a little thankful because he really couldn’t focus on an empty stomach. They met Saeko Tanaka, Ryūnosuke’s older sister, when they sat eating bread and cheese and drinking milk; she had dyed blonde hair cut short and she was a guard too, but at a higher level than Ryūnosuke and Yū. She was almost a part of the military, but not quite. Kei mentioned his brother was a part of the military, but Tobio tuned that out because he frankly didn’t give a care about Kei or Kei’s family.

He had finally done it; he was an apprentice and he was going to protect his village from the evil brunet general who continued to try and raid his village. So far they had the mountains keeping them safe but Tobio knew it was only a matter of time and he had to stop that man before he managed any further. He would save his people. No matter what.


	3. Revisiting Old Ties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I suck at using this website my gosh. Anyway this is super late but here you go. Next chapter will probably be posted sooner than a couple months later. I blame exams.
> 
> Edited for spelling errors on May 13, 2016. 1:12 am.

It had been a long time since Kōshi, Daichi, Asahi or Kiyoko had looked at the books they studied as beginners. A sense of nostalgia followed the cracking of the book spines as they sat in small groups to study said books.

Kiyoko and Hitoka were together at a small desk, Daichi worked with Kei and Tadashi on a bench near the window, Asahi worked with Shōyō in the corner on the floor with books splayed all around them and Kōshi was with Tobio at a desk beside Kiyoko and Hitoka. The scent of musty books and candle wax permeated and as Asahi began to sweat in nervousness of Shōyō’s bright and energetic nature, Kei and Tadashi began to pester both Shōyō and Tobio. Kōshi could tell that after only an hour of study the kids were getting bored and he didn’t blame them. The beginnings of magic study, although fundamentally important, were fairly dry.

“How about a break? Anyone care for some snacks?” Kōshi stood from his hard wooden chair and smiled to the group. They all looked relieved at the suggestion for more food and so they marched their sore butts back into Ryūnosuke’s kitchen to make a quick snack and stretch out their backs and legs. Kōshi got Tadashi and Daichi to help make the snacks. Kōshi suggested that with these more rambunctious children, maybe learning by example and practice would be more effective. There were so many parts to magic and how it worked that were just technical and kind of drab which the non-studious duo probably couldn’t handle. Maybe in time, but as long as Daichi could keep Shōyō and Tobio in line then moving on to actually using magic would be fine. Should be fine, Kōshi corrected himself.

“Alright, that’s it for today. Read those chapters we assigned and we will see you all tomorrow here at dawn!” Daichi said after another couple hours of studying the texts that explained the importance of having various different kinds of mages in a guild or troop and above all the basic spells commonly used by each kind of mage. Of course there were different specialties in each “mage branch” but they wouldn’t be able to really specialize yet since they were only apprentices.

“Want to stop by Hisashi’s place to see if he and Kazuhito will be around tomorrow?” Kōshi suggested to Daichi and Asahi as they cleaned up the books, papers and food mess the apprentices (mostly the troublesome duo) had made of Ryūnosuke’s place.

“Why?” Asahi frowned as he picked up a half-bitten fruit.

“For training. We decided to start a little early with them because the two idiots, you know the two, they probably don’t even know how to read they’re just guessing!” Daichi sighed.

“Give them more credit, Daichi. We at least know that Tobio can, since he read our posters!” Kōshi tried to cool Daichi down a little. Kōshi was always worried that Daichi would hurt himself by worrying and getting angry all the time. “As for Shōyō, he’s surprisingly strong, huh?”

“He’s inexperienced.” Kiyoko stepped in and added fairly quietly. “I’ll wager that Tobio will be the best mage of our apprentice group.” she added as she picked up her books.

“Is Hitoka not promising, Kiyoko?” Kōshi asked her while she sat and watched the three boys finish cleaning up.

“She’s a brilliant girl, but she’s too scared to take any kind of risk which comes with growth.” Kiyoko sighed. “I will have to study with her a lot.”

“I think Kei is too uninterested but Tadashi could do fairly well.” Asahi added.

“But Tadashi is so nervous and afraid just like you!” Daichi snapped. “He’ll never get anywhere if he remains so passive and average.”

“Harsh!” Asahi whined and Kōshi laughed.

“We should see our master about them. See what he thinks?” Kōshi suggested, a little put off by his own idea. They stood fairly still as they thought about it until they all shivered and Kōshi laughed awkwardly. “Maybe that’s not a good idea yet after all.”

“No, it’s been a long time. We should see him.” Daichi nodded, albeit weakly as he tried to convince them – and above all, himself – that it was indeed a good idea.

“We better get going, then.” Kiyoko simply said before leaving the room, the other three following close behind her. They thanked Ryūnosuke and his sister for allowing the small troop to use their home for the day before the quartet ventured out to stop by the farm owned by Hisashi and Kazuhito before visiting their own teacher and mentor, Ikkei of Karasuno. Also known as the “Sharp Beak of Karasuno” for his all-business attitude and harsh teaching methods. People assumed he had gone soft with age, saying his “beak had dulled”, but they knew better. He was just as grumpy, harsh and blunt as ever.

They had gotten permission to use the fields Hisashi and Kazuhito had set up for training their horses, which they would need to inform the students of. Chikara, Ryūnosuke, Yū, Saeko, Hisashi, Kazuhito; they were all friends the quartet had made during their trials and training under Ikkei. They aided the mage students a great deal but all in response for the mages saving their lives at one point or another. Sure, they weren’t the strongest of all the mages – not by a long shot! But they had determination, connections and tactics other mages didn’t bother spending so much time with. Usually mages were vagrants or at least travelers; with the recent switch in militaristic power to a couple of terrifyingly offensive-styled Generals who seemed to refuse the support of mages in their conquest. These two Generals – for the neighbouring area, at least – were Tōru and Wakatoshi, both huge names in the area. The former was charismatic and tactical with a rumoured “warrior from hell” at his disposal. The latter had power and ruled his armies with a sense of entitlement which could rival the greediest of kings. At least that’s what’s been said.

Kōshi knew better than to assume, but he couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t wary of the generals of the largest nations in the area; after all his hometown of Karasuno was small and barely had a military at all.

“Kōshi, you’re thinking too much again.” Daichi gently nudged Kōshi, who smiled in-turn to his friend and they continued on their way to Ikkei’s abode. They were greeted by a man collecting some kind of fruit or berry in the field they knew all too well. The man was Ikkei’s very own grandson whom they had never spent very much time with as he had been out of the nation for a bulk of their training period. It was refreshing to see that even though Keishin had become a successful and powerful guardsman, Ikkei could still get him to do manual labour for likely all day.

“Hello?” Keishin looked up and defensively stood in front of the four mages.

“Keishin, I assume?” Kōshi stepped forward with a small smile to try and ease the guard’s natural defenses. “We trained under your grandfather.”

Keishin immediately hugged Daichi and Kōshi as they were the closest to him and the duo froze up a little in confusion.

“I’m so sorry. How did you do it?” Keishin backed up then shook his head. “Never mind that, did you need to see him?”

“If it’s no trouble.” Kiyoko nodded before introducing herself. Even she was a little nervous and the boys could tell by the way she kept formal and her fingers twitched as she held them behind her back.

“No trouble at all. He’s with another few apprentices out back.” Keishin told them. That was surprising as they had thought he wouldn’t take any more apprentices after them, since he insisted that would be the case. Keishin resumed his work while the four mages slowly made their way to the back. Asahi needed to be dragged by Daichi and as a result, Asahi was thrown out into the line of sight first to assess the damage to be done by Ikkei. Asahi lightly squealed, but remained fairly alive as he stood shivering and waving as weakly as usual for Asahi. He was all the trio could see and when he didn’t immediately get eviscerated, they determined the coast was clear enough. Daichi, Kōshi and Kiyoko meekly walked out to join their sacrificial goat of a friend and saw a trio of students being taught by a grey-haired man they all recognized as Ikkei immediately even as they had quite a few years of estrangement from him as a part of their training, of course. He glared at them like he always would and they averted their eyes as they stood. Daichi was the only one strong enough to straighten up and directly address Ikkei. He took a deep breath, bowed in greeting, then looked at Ikkei before speaking and moving instinctively closer to Kōshi.

“Hello Master Ikkei, we have come to get some guidance from you.” Daichi said as loudly, strongly and clearly as he could. Kōshi and Asahi admired his strength while Kiyoko was simply glad she didn’t have to speak to their master so directly.

“I already know that. Stop interrupting my class and take a damn seat!” Ikkei growled before turning to his students who were practicing with wooden swords.

“Do you think he really knew?” Asahi whispered as they sat on the steps of the old man’s porch to wait for training to end.

“Of course he knew! He’s the best oracle in this entire continent.” Kiyoko reminded Asahi as if he needed that reminder. Imagine training with an oracle who could predict large vague catastrophes but also what a certain person would do in the future; immediate or further away. It was agonizing to train when Ikkei would correct you prior to your action even taking place! You could never win!

“Alright show me what you’ve all learned.” Ikkei walked up to the seated mages who stood and remained on the steps. They knew they only had to think about what they would do in response and he would see it. That was a test he had only done once before but it was memorable enough that they knew he didn’t need to see them actually do anything to know how strong they were. Even if he wasn’t a clairvoyant, he would recognize their strength without needing to actually see their abilities. Again, their power was in their accumulated skill in tactics, nearly crippling determination and knowledge brought through their interactions with friends and opponents. “Very good.” he nodded and walked past them inside, yelling for them to follow him. They did and stood near the door as they didn’t want to spend too long inside. “Since you want to leave so bad, I guess I’ll be brief. You are doing well and your ideas are founded on prior knowledge. You’re adaptable for your apprentices and I won’t tell you how you do, but you kids have the right idea.”

That message was both uplifting and agonizingly annoying. It was good to know they were on the right track with changing it up for the apprentices, but it wasn’t exactly a message with clear support or direction to aid their path. Then again, that was very like Ikkei; he was always very cryptic and this was the most helpful he’d ever been, honestly. They needed aid with how to deal with the apprentices, but mostly Tobio, Shōyō and Kei since they were the most troublesome. Hitoka and Tadashi just needed confidence boosters and they would be perfect to go. Too bad not even Asahi had that serum invented to date.

“Focus and training. That’s all those three need.” Ikkei spoke up with a sigh. Kōshi felt just a little nervous as he felt his mind was being picked apart by Ikkei. “You’ll be fine. Now get lost.” Ikkei dismissed them and Kōshi smiled. Although pretty callous, Ikkei was always a man who was willing to help his students. With a bit of a rough tint to it, of course. That was just how he was.

They left and headed out, saying goodbye to Keishin before heading back to their lodging at their old abode which was now inhabited by Yui who was always ready to aid the quartet, namely Daichi who had saved her from a wild phoenix who had once ravaged the country outskirts of Karasuno.

“Why are you smiling so much, Kōshi?” Daichi asked as the two sat in their old study, preparing some lessons for their apprentices. “You’ve been smiling since we’ve gotten back from Ikkei’s.”

“Why aren’t you smiling more? Yui’s obviously into you. Did you see the way she’s been looking at you all night?” Kōshi teased Daichi. Kōshi already knew Daichi wasn’t into Yui like she hoped he was, but he could never tell her. At least until she confessed, then maybe.

“Kōshi!” Daichi, embarrassed, smacked Kōshi with a punch that was much too light for the duo. “Seriously, what’s gotten you so chipper?”

“Did you hear what Ikkei said? ‘You’ll be fine.’ was what he said.” Kōshi smiled and he was unable to really contain it.

“Yeah. You think that was a fortune?” Daichi asked.

“I know it was.” Kōshi smiled in joy and expectance of the times to come for the four mages and their apprentices. They would all be lying if they insisted they weren’t overjoyed at the prospect of a bright future. The next few lessons would be the easiest for the quartet of magic-wielding young adults.


End file.
